Nicholas Raven and the Wizards' Web (The Complete Epic Fantasy)

by Thomas J. Prestopnik

  Suddenly Leo had an idea. “Maybe I should return later tonight and help Aubrey escort Meg to Laurel Corners,” he eagerly suggested.

  “Let’s keep to our plan,” Ivy cautioned.

  “I agree,” Nicholas said as they ambled past a string of small stone houses, many with their windows darkened. A glimpse of the distant water could be seen in the small openings between the buildings. Two figures, cloaked in the shadows, followed them from behind, though they kept their distance. “We’ll only draw suspicion if you leave Castella’s house in the middle of the night.”

  “I suppose you’re right.” Leo glanced up at the sky as the Bear Moon, nearly at first quarter, drifted westward. The full Fox Moon had not yet risen in the east. When he looked up the street again, he noticed that two people had just turned the corner into the lane and headed in their direction. “And I suppose it’s going to be a very long night, too.”

  “You’ll survive,” Nicholas said lightly, trying to cheer his friend though empathizing with his plight.

  He glanced at Ivy, happily noticing that she was looking his way. She squeezed Nicholas’ arm and he felt an unspoken bond between them grow suddenly stronger. He looked forward to knowing Ivy better, yet wondered what might become of this budding relationship if he departed in the morning. Ever since leaving Kanesbury nine days ago, his life had been a constant whirlwind. He wondered if he was merely hanging on, allowing himself to be swept away by events and emotions to avoid facing his troubles back home. Or did the people he recently met really mean something to him, especially Ivy? Walking beside her, he felt an undeniable sense of joy and knew that it must be so.

  Before he could think more about it, Nicholas realized that the two people approaching them had suddenly quickened their step. He felt unnerved and instinctively glanced behind him. Leo did likewise. The two other figures who were tailing them also moved faster now, stalking the trio like a pair of hungry wolves. Nicholas grabbed Ivy’s hand, his heart beating wildly as he silently vowed to protect her with his very life.

  “What’s happening?” she breathlessly asked.

  Leo pointed to their right, indicating a narrow lane that opened up ahead. Nicholas nodded, knowing they’d have just enough time to turn onto that street before any of their pursuers in front or behind could reach them.

  “Now!” Nicholas whispered, tightening his grip on Ivy’s hand as Leo kept watch over her from the opposite side.

  They hurried around the corner and down a deserted side street which was fully engulfed in the evening gloom. Lit candles in some of the windows provided the only light to guide them. The echo of distant footsteps filled the air like the buzz of annoying insects, growing louder as they sped down a cobblestone path.

  “Turn left up ahead,” Leo said, hoping the next street might be busier and provide them a means of escape or assistance. He craned his neck back, seeing the devilish glint of firelight reflect off the eyes of their four pursuers.

  “Just a few more steps!” Nicholas whispered to Ivy, his mind clear and sharp as it suppressed bitter anger below the surface. He felt a surge of confidence that they would gain the upper hand as soon as they cleared this lane and bolted onto the wider street ahead.

  Then a harsh turn of events overwhelmed them.

  Four more shadowy figures emerged from around the corner up ahead and barreled toward Nicholas, Ivy and Leo with terrifying silence, barely allowing them time enough to stop. They knew that a retreat in the opposite direction was impossible just as the swarm of hunters crashed over them like a giant wave.

  Nicholas heard Ivy frantically scream as he was dragged to the ground, feeling the cold press of cobblestone to his face. He grabbed someone by the leg, pulling him down as he scrambled to his feet, catching Leo out of the corners of his eyes being pushed against a stone wall. Nicholas lunged forward to help his friend, jumping on the back of one of their attackers and pulling him to the ground. As Nicholas rolled on his back, the candlelight in a nearby window reflected off the face of a man standing nearby who calmly observed the four men who were fighting Nicholas and Leo. His thin eyebrows and sunken cheeks made him appear cold and calculating. Nicholas sprang to his feet just as another man stumbled backward over him after being pushed by Leo, causing Nicholas to fall down on one knee and wince.

  “Sorry!” Leo called out just as two more men lunged at him and dragged him farther down the middle of the street. Their attackers seemed less intent on harming them than merely delaying them.

  Nicholas rushed to help Leo before the two men on the ground could interfere. But a moment later they were on top of him again, dragging Nicholas down as he struggled to keep his stance. He could still see that fifth man hanging off in the distance, patiently watching. Then his foot was kicked out from under him. Nicholas plummeted to the road, wondering where the last three men had gone to when he heard another muffled scream in the distance. It was Ivy. In the cold pit of his stomach, he knew the horrid answer. Those last three men were whisking her away.

  “They’ve got Megan!” Nicholas shouted, having wits enough not to mention Ivy’s name as a fierce anger boiled inside him.

  He yanked his arm away from one of his attackers and thrust a fist into the man’s jaw. A burst of searing pain shot up Nicholas’ arm as the man groaned, rolling onto his side. Nicholas jabbed an elbow in the other man’s chest and jumped to his feet, stepping over the injured bodies before rushing to Leo’s aid. But before he could help his friend, Nicholas was slammed in his side and shoved against the corner of a stone house, falling to the ground as his shoulder burned with white-hot pain. He looked up in a semi-daze, recognizing the man who had pushed him. The stranger’s vacant observing eyes looked upon him for an instant before he sprinted off, signaling for the other four to follow. The two men on the ground jumped up and trailed their leader down the street. Leo’s two attackers saw their companions flee and shoved Leo to the ground before following them to the end of the lane. All disappeared around the corner. Leo struggled to his feet and hurried over to check on Nicholas who held onto his shoulder in obvious pain.

  “You okay?” Leo asked, breathing heavily.

  “Still alive,” he said, his head feeling on fire. After Leo offered him a hand up, Nicholas glanced down the street. The five men had disappeared. He looked down the other end of the lane and indicated for Leo to follow. “They took Ivy this way! The other three men took Ivy this way,” he said with desperation, his voice cracking.

  “Let’s go!” Leo said, sprinting down the cobblestones.

  He and Nicholas emerged onto the next street which was nearly as quiet as the previous one though better illuminated with a few oil lamps. A handful of pedestrians walked along in the distance.

  “Split up!” Nicholas said, on the verge of panic. He raced in one direction while waving wildly for Leo to go the opposite way.

  Nicholas glanced between the houses and shops as he sprinted past, scanning the faces of passersby and listening for the sound of Ivy’s voice. But no call was forthcoming. He stopped several individuals on the next street, frantically asking if they had seen a young woman in a cloak with three men. But none had, and so he stumbled forward though the deepening gloom with his tortured thoughts, stopping now and then to look and listen, retracing his steps or wandering in circles. He knew that every passing second was sending Ivy further and further into some unimaginable doom. Soon he couldn’t think straight and found it a struggle to breathe. A cold night breeze glided off the sea waves and brushed across his face, drying a teardrop that had streamed down his cheek.

  Leo found Nicholas a half hour later wandering aimlessly along a side street, quiet and grim. Both had retraced their steps several times and had even searched along the main road near the sea, all to no avail. There was no sign of Ivy or any of the eight men who had attacked them. Nicholas felt as if she had disappeared from the face of Laparia altogether.

  “She’s gone…” he finally muttered, his heart beating painfully and hi
s eyes filled with wild fear, not expecting Leo to provide the slightest bit of good news. “What do we do now?” he asked as full darkness descended, making him feel like a tiny speck in a vast and turbulent ocean. “What do we do now?”

  CHAPTER 18

  Visitors from the North

  Ivy opened her eyes in darkness, not aware of how many hours she had been sleeping. She heard a mournful breeze whistling through cracks in the door and thought she detected the sound of waves along the seashore, wondering if she might still be in Boros. She sat up with a struggle, her hands tied behind her back, her feet tightly bound. A pungent scent of wild herbs and stale vegetables lingered in the air. Just where had those three men taken her? And what had happened to Nicholas and Leo?

  Moments later she heard voices, whispered bits of conversation as someone removed a wooden bar outside the door. Slowly it opened, allowing a cool breeze to sweep inside the abandoned root cellar. Pale light from an oil lamp cast shadows upon the walls and low ceiling as two figures approached. Both were short in stature, though one, a woman, appeared thinner and more elegant. The other, a slightly stocky man who carried the lamp, seemed less concerned with his appearance.

  He walked toward Ivy and held the light close to her. A sickly yellow glow emanated through a series of vertical scores cut into the copper plates surrounding the flame. The man briefly examined her face and signaled for the woman to take a look.

  “Here she is,” he said matter-of-factly. “What do you think?”

  The woman advanced, wrapped in a dark cloak lined with fox fur. She leaned forward, studying Ivy’s features with a pair of inquisitive eyes set beneath locks of flaming red hair wrapped in a black silk kerchief with stitching of fine gold.

  “So this is who they delivered to me,” Madeline said, more to herself than to the others. “And after all this time…”

  “Who are you?” Ivy asked defiantly. “And where am I?”

  “We are outside the village of Cavara Beach, about five miles west of Boros,” she said. “And as for who I am–”

  “Release me at once! I don’t care who you are.”

  “Such anger in your voice,” Madeline calmly said, standing back while massaging her chin and remembering events from twenty years ago. “It’s been such a long time since we last met. I thought you’d be happy to see me again.”

  Mune, holding the oil lamp, stepped back and chuckled. “That was quite humorous coming from your lips. Why, you’ve nearly cracked a joke,” he said with delight. Madeline looked at him askance. Even in the pre-dawn gloom, Mune could see in her eyes that she wasn’t in the mood for his banter. “Sorry…”

  “What do you want with me?” Ivy said, struggling to get up. “I demand an answer!”

  Madeline held up a hand to calm her. “And you shall have one, Megan. Trust me.”

  Ivy felt her heart beating rapidly, realizing that these people thought she was Princess Megan. She was both pleased and terrified at the same time. They truly believed that she was King Justin’s granddaughter, at least in the shadows of this root cellar. But since the woman said she hadn’t seen her in some time, Ivy felt a growing confidence about getting away with the charade. She then wondered if other associates in her kidnappers’ circle might know more information about the princess, including what she looks like. Ivy’s confidence waned. Perhaps she would be discovered in short order. Perhaps the switch wasn’t such a good idea after all.

  “Why do you call me by that name?” she asked, believing that by denying Megan’s identity she might fully convince her captors that she was the princess. “My name is Ivy.”

  Madeline smiled in the pale light. “Of course it is, my dear. My name is Madeline, by the way. And though you probably won’t remember me, I used to be your nursemaid when you were an infant.”

  “What are you talking about?” she scoffed, recalling that Megan had mentioned Madeline’s name in Castella’s house. “My mother tended to me while I grew up on our farm, as she did with all my brothers and sisters. She couldn’t afford to hire a nursemaid even if she had wanted to.”

  Madeline smirked. “Nice try. But your deception will not fool me, Megan. I know who you are. You cannot hide your true identity. Dell Hawks, my old associate inside the Citadel, knows who you are. He had been following you and those two farmhands for a few days. He hired the men who kidnapped you in Boros.”

  Ivy sighed. “Well you’ve kidnapped the wrong person, so please release me. If you’d like, get that Dell Hawks fellow to come back and identify me.”

  “Sorry, but he’s off to war in the south,” she replied. “More lucrative opportunities down there. Your kidnapping was only a spur-of-the-moment operation.”

  “I am not this Princess Megan you speak of.”

  Mune glanced at Madeline, slightly unnerved. “Do we have the right girl?”

  She grimaced. “Of course we do, Mune! She’s just posturing, hoping to convince us otherwise.”

  “I’m telling the truth!” Ivy insisted. “I’m not a princess. What a preposterous story.”

  “Of course you’re not,” Madeline replied. “And I suppose you’ve never been to Morrenwood either? Nor looked upon the Blue Citadel framed against the majestic pines and the Trent Hills?”

  “Never,” Ivy said, her voice emitting the slightest quiver.

  Madeline intently studied the girl’s face, searching for the truth. “If you’re suffering from a bout of amnesia, then I believe you, my dear. But there is more than one way to discover your identity.”

  “I don’t know what you mean,” Ivy replied, averting her eyes from Madeline’s penetrating gaze.

  “Perhaps this will refresh your memory.” She bent down and gently lifted Ivy’s cloak, pushing it back from her shoulders to reveal the collar of her blouse and the scarf Nicholas had given to her.

  “What are you doing? Leave me alone! Though we are of the same age, I am not Megan,” she insisted. “You have to believe me!”

  “My dear girl, I never mentioned the age of the princess,” Madeline said. “But thanks for the added confirmation.”

  Madeline hooked a finger behind Ivy’s neck and felt the touch of cool metal. Mune watched in fascination as the lamp flickered. A moment later, she lifted a gold chain up over Ivy’s head. Attached to it was a silver medallion that she removed from her prisoner. Mune brought the light closer so they could examine the find.

  “What is it?” he asked, eager to see the treasure.

  “Proof,” Madeline said, eyeing the etching of the Citadel and a winding river among the pine trees and mountains. She flipped the piece over and smiled as the image of a galloping horse under two rising full moons stared back at her.

  “It’s quite stunning,” Mune said, glancing at Ivy. “Too bad the rising full moons aren’t bringing you any good fortune today.”

  Madeline smirked. “All members of the royal bloodline receive one on the day of their birth.”

  “I– I found it on the roadside,” Ivy said, not sounding particularly convincing. “I’ll sell it to you!”

  “Enough said.” Madeline gently draped the medallion back over Ivy’s head. “A princess of Arrondale shouldn’t be parted from such a beautiful heirloom, hmmm?”

  Ivy scowled and turned her head.

  “So she’s a princess after all,” Mune said, calculating her use and value in his mind. “Now what do we do with her?”

  “We load her onto the wagon and continue our journey. It’ll be a long and miserable ride over some uncomfortable terrain, so let’s get going.”

  “Can’t wait,” he grumbled.

  “Where are you taking me?” Ivy demanded to know, locking gazes with Madeline. “You will not get away with this. I have very powerful friends.”

  “As do we. In fact, we’re on our way to meet some of our friends visiting from the north,” she said, taking the oil lamp from Mune so he could untie Ivy’s feet and assist her out the door. “I know you’ll be pleased to make their acquaintance.�
�

  They departed in the windy darkness before dawn, rattling away on a small covered wagon drawn by a pair of horses and guided by the light of two oil lamps affixed to the front. Ivy remained tied up in the wagon, lying on the floorboards, her head resting upon the folds of an old blanket. She felt satisfied that she had convinced Madeline and Mune that she was Princess Megan, but the ramifications of her actions were only beginning to sink in. What would be her fate now that the King’s enemies believed they had his granddaughter captive? A sense of impending doom slowly encroached upon her.

  At last the main road out of Cavara Beach came to an end. From there they would travel over hard-packed dirt paths where they could find them, providing that a sudden rain storm wouldn’t clog up the way with mud and cause them a severe delay. The horses trotted north toward the edge of the Trillium Sea and then headed west along the grasslands, a harsh unpopulated region of the kingdom. Thin stretches of stone and sand beaches bordered a boundless field of tall brittle grass, all plagued by cold winds and gray skies for many months of the year.

  For nearly two and a half days the trio slogged onward, seeking out hardened paths parallel to the beaches or sometimes through the grass itself where the snarling vegetation grew particularly low and unobstructing to the wagon wheels. Madeline occasionally ordered a stop to rest the horses or to partake in a brief meal from some of the food supplies packed for the trip. Late into the first night, Mune built a small fire to sleep by, though only for a few hours since the wood supply they carried was limited and finding a piece of driftwood along shore was a rarity. Well before dawn had broken, they joylessly journeyed on in the chilly darkness under thick gray clouds as the peaks of the Trent Hills grew in the distant west.

  Ivy was allowed to travel with her wrists tied in front of her since Madeline didn’t fear an escape attempt while in this desolate terrain. Ivy, however, knew that she wouldn’t survive the elements if she ever tried to flee. But maybe someone would rescue her, she thought, blindly hoping that Nicholas and Leo would miraculously pick up her trail. But how could they, she depressingly wondered, feeling they would have located her by now if they were ever going to. Ivy touched the scarf Nicholas bought for her in Boros. She had tied it around her neck, feeling a connection to him as her fingers caressed the fine material. Then an idea struck her, though she admitted to herself that it was just a fanciful dream. She untied the small knot in the scarf and removed it, holding it near the back opening in the cart so that the material fluttered in the passing breeze.